In cooking, a chef's knife, also known as a French knife or a cook's knife, is a cutting tool

Knife

A knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools...

 used in food preparation. The chef's knife was originally designed primarily to slice and disjoint large cuts of beef

Beef

Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...

. Today it is the primary general-utility knife for most Western cooks.

A chef's knife generally has a blade eight inches (20 cm) in length and 1 ½ inches (4 cm) in width, although individual models range from 6 to 14 inches (15 cm to 36 cm) in length. There are two common types of blade shape, French and German. German-style knives are more deeply and continuously curved along the whole cutting edge; the French style has an edge that is straighter until the end and then curves up to the tip. Neither style is inherently superior; personal preference will dictate the choice.

A modern chef's knife is a utility knife designed to perform well at many differing kitchen tasks, rather than excelling at any one in particular. It can be used for mincing, slicing, and chopping vegetables, slicing meat, and disjointing large cuts.

Recently, a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese development of the chef's knife, the santoku

Santoku

The Santoku hōchō or Bunka hōchō is a general-purpose kitchen knife originating in Japan. Its blade is typically between long, and has a flat edge and a sheepsfoot blade that curves in an angle approaching 60 degrees at the point. The top of the santoku's handle is in line with the top of the...

(literally: "three good things"), a general-purpose utility knife, has also gained popularity in the West. The santoku is primarily designed for cutting fish, vegetables, and boneless or lightly boned meats such as chicken. The santoku features a sheepsfoot blade with a spine that drops sharply to meet the hardened, acutely-ground cutting edge.

Physical characteristics

Chef knives are made with blades that are either hot-forged or stamped:

• Hot-forged: A hot-forge
  Forge
  A forge is a hearth used for forging. The term "forge" can also refer to the workplace of a smith or a blacksmith, although the term smithy is then more commonly used.The basic smithy contains a forge, also known as a hearth, for heating metals...
  
  d blade is made in an expensive, multi-step process, often by skilled manual labor. A blank of steel is heated to a high temperature, and beaten to shape the steel. After forging, the blade is ground and sharpened. Forged knives are usually also full-tang, meaning the metal in the knife runs from the tip of the knifepoint to the far end of the handle.
• Stamped: A stamped blade is cut to shape directly from cold rolled steel, heat-treated for strength and temper, then ground, sharpened, and polished.

The blade

Blade

A blade is that portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with a cutting edge and/or a pointed tip that is designed to cut and/or puncture, stab, slash, chop, slice, thrust, or scrape animate or inanimate surfaces or materials...

 of a chef's knife is typically made of carbon steel, stainless steel, a laminate of both metals, or ceramic:

• Carbon steel: An alloy of iron
  Iron
  Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
  
   and approximately 1% carbon
  Carbon
  Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds...
  
  . Most carbon steel chef's knives are simple carbon iron alloys without exotic additions such as chrome or vanadium. Carbon steel blades are both easier to sharpen than ordinary stainless steel and usually hold an edge longer, but are vulnerable to rust
  Rust
  Rust is a general term for a series of iron oxides. In colloquial usage, the term is applied to red oxides, formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the presence of water or air moisture...
  
   and stains. Some professional cooks swear by knives of carbon steel because of their sharpness. Over time, a carbon-steel knife will normally acquire a dark patina, and can rust or corrode if not cared for properly by cleaning and lubricating the blade after use. Some chefs also 'rest' their carbon-steel knives for a day after use in order to restore the oxidizing patina, which prevents transfer of metallic tastes to some foods. While some cooks prefer and use carbon steel knives (especially in Asia and the Middle East), others find carbon steel too maintenance-intensive in a kitchen environment.
• Stainless steel
  Stainless steel
  In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
  
  : An alloy of iron, approximately 10-15% of chromium
  Chromium
  Chromium is a chemical element which has the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in Group 6. It is a steely-gray, lustrous, hard metal that takes a high polish and has a high melting point. It is also odorless, tasteless, and malleable...
  
  , nickel
  Nickel
  Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...
  
  , or molybdenum
  Molybdenum
  Molybdenum , is a Group 6 chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42. The name is from Neo-Latin Molybdaenum, from Ancient Greek , meaning lead, itself proposed as a loanword from Anatolian Luvian and Lydian languages, since its ores were confused with lead ores...
  
  , with only a small amount of carbon. Lower grades of stainless steel cannot take as sharp an edge as good-quality high-carbon steels, but are resistant to corrosion, and are inexpensive. Higher grade and 'exotic' stainless steels (mostly from Japan - as used by Global
  Global (cutlery)
  Global is a brand of cutlery products made by Yoshikin of Japan. Their selection of knives are known for their distinctive one piece, molybdenum/vanadium stainless steel design, even it is made of two parts.- History :Global was founded by Yuzo Watanabe in Japan in 1983.Over the past decade the...
  
  , Kasumi and others) are extremely sharp with excellent edge retention, and equal or outperform carbon steel blades.
• Laminated. A laminated knife tries to use the best of each material by creating a layered sandwich of different materials—for instances, using a softer-but-tough steel as the backing material, and a sharper/harder - but more brittle - steel as the edge material.
• Ceramic
  Ceramic
  A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
  
   blades hold an edge the longest of all, but they chip easily and may break if dropped. They also require special equipment and expertise to resharpen. They are sinter
  Sintering
  Sintering is a method used to create objects from powders. It is based on atomic diffusion. Diffusion occurs in any material above absolute zero, but it occurs much faster at higher temperatures. In most sintering processes, the powdered material is held in a mold and then heated to a temperature...
  
  ed to shape with zirconium oxide powder. They are chemically nonreactive, so will not discolor or change the taste of food.

Handles are made of wood, steel, or synthetic/composite materials.

Edge

The edge may be ground in different ways:

• Double grind, V-shape, single or double Bevel.
• Convex edge.
• Hollow-ground.
• Single Grind or Chisel edge.

In order to improve the chef's knife's multi-purpose abilities, some owners employ differential sharpening along the length of the blade. The fine tip, used for precision work such as mincing, might be ground with a very sharp, acute cutting bevel; the mid-section or belly of the blade receives a moderately sharp edge for general cutting, chopping and slicing, while the heavy heel or back of the cutting edge is given a strong, thick edge for such heavy-duty tasks as disjointing beef.

Technique

Technique for the use of a chef's knife is an individual preference. Most cooks prefer to grip the handle, with all four fingers and the thumb gathered underneath. For more precise control, some adopt a grip on the blade itself, with the thumb and the index finger grasping the blade just to the front of the finger guard and the middle finger placed just opposite, on the handle side of the finger guard below the bolster.

For fine slicing, the handle is raised up and down while the tip remains in contact with the cutting board and the cut object is pushed under the blade.

See also

• Chinese chef's knife
• Japanese cutlery
• Kitchen knife
  Kitchen knife
  A kitchen knife is any knife that is intended to be used in food preparation. While much of this work can be accomplished with a few general-purpose knives – notably a large chef's knife, a tough cleaver, and a small paring knife – there are also many specialized knives that are designed for...
  
  
• Santoku
  Santoku
  The Santoku hōchō or Bunka hōchō is a general-purpose kitchen knife originating in Japan. Its blade is typically between long, and has a flat edge and a sheepsfoot blade that curves in an angle approaching 60 degrees at the point. The top of the santoku's handle is in line with the top of the...
  
  
• Sashimi bocho
  Sashimi bocho
  Tako hiki , yanagi ba , and fugu hiki are long thin knives used in the Japanese kitchen, belonging to the group of Sashimi bōchō to prepare sashimi, sliced raw fish and seafood.Similar to the nakiri bocho, the style...
  
  
• Deba bocho
  Deba bocho
  Deba bocho are Japanese style kitchen carvers used to cut fish, as well as chicken and meat. They come in different sizes, sometimes up to 30 cm in length. The deba bocho first appeared during the Edo period in Sakai. It is designed to behead and fillet fish...
  
  
• Nakiri bocho
  Nakiri bocho
  Nakiri bōchō and usuba bōchō are Japanese-style vegetable knives. They differ from the deba bōchō in their shape, as they have a straight blade edge suitable for cutting all the way to the cutting board without the need for a horizontal pull or push. These knives are also much thinner...
  
  

External links

• Large Chef Knife Types of knives, description, how to choose - an article from professional cook.
• Free Culinary School Podcast Episode 1 A podcast episode that talks about how to choose a chef's knife and basic knife skills technique.